Bailey turned to the officer. “We just want to take a quick look. We won’t go inside.”
The officer gave her an incredulous stare, then shook his head. “If Dorian catches you, you’re on your own. They don’t pay me enough.” The officer opened the door and stepped aside.
We stood on the threshold and leaned in as far as we could without falling. The tiled foyer led to a sunken living room that had a panoramic view of the city, as well as a swimming pool that ran from the middle of the room, under the glass wall, and out to the edge of the backyard. I’d have loved its sheer craziness if I didn’t know how well rats could swim. I supposed Russell kept an exterminator on permanent retainer. I couldn’t help but wonder whether that was a metaphor for his life in general. I recognized the iron fence surrounding the perimeter of the property as the one Hayley had been standing in front of in the photograph. I made a mental note to check whether there was enough background in the video to tell whether she was still here when it was recorded.
“What the hell do you two think you’re doing?”
“Shit,” I whispered.
Bailey rolled her eyes and we jumped back, away from the threshold. Dorian had arrived.
She pushed her sunglasses on top of her gray crew cut and planted her short, squat frame in front of us, hands on hips. “You two been in there already? ’Cause if you have…” The look in her eyes finished the sentence.
“Absolutely not,” I said.
“I wouldn’t let her,” said Bailey-the obnoxious, kiss-ass traitor.
I shot her a sidelong look. “I’d never-”
Dorian cut me off with a wave of her hand. “I’ve got no time for this, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. You want the house and backyard?”
“Yeah.” Bailey explained what we were looking for and where the investigation stood at this point.
“Okay,” Dorian said. “Now feel free to get going. I sure as hell don’t need you here.”
We saluted and left. As Bailey pulled away I asked, “What was that ‘I wouldn’t let her’ business all about?”
“Just earning a few credibility points for future use-”
“At my expense-”
“You’re not the one who has to pull favors to get her. Sometimes you got to take the hit for a higher cause. There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ Knight.”
“Yeah, but there is one in ‘kiss-ass.’”
“You’ll thank me the next time we need her and I have the suck to pull her out of rotation.”
She was probably right about that, but it didn’t stop me from privately vowing to get even sometime soon. Bailey’s smirking glance told me she knew what I was thinking. It’s not always a great thing having someone know you that well.
